Spent, Baird rolled and pulled her on top of him, cushioning her from the hard floor. Aislinn brushed her hair back from her face and pillowed her arms on his chest, looking down into his silver eyes.
“I missed you,” Baird said simply.
“I see that,” Aislinn said, laughing down at his face.
“I'm sorry, Ash. I shouldn't have said…the things that I did,” he whispered and Aislinn could feel the real pain in his voice.
“That's okay. You're a man. Men have a tendency to be idiots at times in their lives,” Aislinn said magnanimously.
Baird raised his eyebrow at her. “Did you just call me an idiot after I made love to you?”
Aislinn grinned down at him. “Oh, was that love you were making?”
Baird reached up and traced a hand down her cheek, over her nose and down her bottom lip.
“Aye, it was. I love you, Ash. I don't know why or how, or fully understand you, but you're all that I can think about. It's not just lust, I know the difference,” Baird said.
“Well sure and I thought that I'd seduced you into lust,” Aislinn teased.
“I thought that too,” Baird said seriously and Aislinn jokingly smacked him in the head.
“That's why you were all about being hands off?”
“I just felt like I wanted to know you better. It didn’t make sense to me that I would feel so much…so quickly.” Baird shrugged.
Aislinn tilted her head and looked down at him.
“Don't you believe in love at first sight, Doctor?”
“No, I don't. Or, I didn't, I guess,” Baird said, scrunching his nose up as he thought about it.
“Not everything lines up neatly like in those textbooks of yours, does it?” Aislinn asked quietly.
“No,” Baird admitted, watching her. “But, human emotion is messy and often doesn't follow textbooks. Even I know that.”
“What about the other stuff? My gift?”
“I love you and that is part of you so I can accept that.”
Something about the way he said it rankled, like he was giving her a gift or something. Aislinn, for the first time in her life, decided to keep her mouth shut and not ruin the moment. Especially when she could tell what he was feeling. There was no animosity behind his words.
“I guess I'll have to learn to accept that you are some fancy doctor then,” Aislinn said instead and was rewarded with a laugh from Baird. Aislinn giggled as her stomach growled loudly on Baird and he looked at her in awe.
“Not eating much?”
“Between being angry at you and having to get ready for my show, food kind of falls off my radar,” Aislinn admitted.
“Let me feed you,” Baird said and moved to sit up.
Aislinn rolled from him and stopped when she saw Baird frozen, staring at her canvases.
“These…they're stunning. Almost painfully so. My God, Ash. You take my breath away.”
Baird went and stood before the panels and Aislinn had the distinct pleasure of admiring his naked rear end. Maybe that was the missing part to her middle part of the painting, she mused. A snicker escaped her and Baird turned to narrow his eyes at her.
“Sorry, I was thinking about painting you into my canvas. Just like that.” Aislinn gestured.
“Oh yeah? How's this?” Baird bent his knees and pushed his butt out like he was a girl and Aislinn fell over herself laughing.
“Don't get mad if something like that appears in my show,” she called after his retreating back end.
Aislinn snagged her sleep shorts and pulled them over her legs and stood in front of her painting. She closed her eyes and could feel what she needed to do. She was dying to pick up her brush, but knew that sometimes the artist in her had to wait.
“I've got the dinner of champions starting in here,” Baird called from the kitchen. He poked his head out to her. “Grilled cheese and soup sound good?”
“Perfect.” Aislinn grinned at him, feeling giddy at the turn her night had taken.
Glad that she hadn't overthought it. That she'd let him in.
Grateful that she had allowed emotions to rule her world instead of pride.
“Get comfortable, I'll serve you,” Baird called from the kitchen and Aislinn raised her eyebrows at that. A man who cooked and served the food? Smiling, she made quick use of the bathroom and then padded over to her low-slung couch, pulling a throw over her bare legs.
Baird came out of the kitchen carrying two plates with cups of soup and sandwiches on them.
“Triangles?” Aislinn asked, raising her eyebrow at the neatly cut sandwich.
“Always,” Baird said and sat next to her, stretching his legs so that their feet intertwined on the couch. Steam poured from the top of the mug and Aislinn blew on it as she looked at him over the rim. He looked rumpled and comfortable on her couch, at ease with the world and himself.
How had they gotten here? From in a fury a week ago to comfortably cozying up on the couch over soup and a sandwich.
She'd opened the door for him, hadn't she?
“What made you come here tonight?” Aislinn asked, taking a bite of her grilled cheese sandwich, crisped to perfection.
Baird shrugged his shoulders and sipped at his soup, looking over at her wall of paintings.
“Morgan came to see me.”
Aislinn didn't say anything, waiting him out. He raised his eyebrow at her and laughed.
“Aye, so you know the power of silence in getting someone to talk then?”
Aislinn smiled at him cheerfully and a laugh bubbled from him, low and long. She wanted to crawl across the couch and snuggle up on his muscular chest.
“I can't talk about our sessions, as it is privileged information. Needless to say, she's opened my eyes to a few things.”
“Like the fact that extra abilities are a very real thing?” Aislinn asked archly.
Baird sighed and ran his hand through his thick hair. “Listen, it's not that I doubted you. Okay, maybe it is…” He held up his hand to silence her when she tried to speak. “It's that it was weird for me to go from never being around someone with extra abilities to suddenly having a whole town seemingly comfortable with all this…magickal stuff.”
“That you know of…” Aislinn said.
“What's that?”
“You've never spent time around someone with extra power that you know of,” Aislinn clarified.
Baird looked astounded at that realization and Aislinn choked out a laugh. She suspected that she would continue to rock Baird's narrow world view for quite a while yet.
“I just…don't you want to know why? Magick doesn't make sense to me. Science does. I'm sorry that I am this way, but I just automatically seek answers. To explain.” Baird held up his hands beseechingly and Aislinn sighed at his words.
“And if there are no explanations? Other than what we've been told?”
“Then I have to accept it. Magick.”
“Why can't you just accept that now?” Aislinn asked, bitterness seeping into her tone.
“Ash, this is all new to me. I can't help that my mind immediately jumps to wanting to figure it out. To study it.” Baird shrugged his shoulders, looking confused and shaken.
“So what does that mean for us?”
“I know that I want to be with you,” Baird said simply.
“And that's it? What about the future?”
Tilting his head, Baird studied her from behind his glasses, his silver eyes bright with intelligence and love.
“I say that we deepen our bond a day at a time and the future will plan itself.”
Aislinn's mouth dropped open. It was the most “by the seat of the pants” statement that she had heard from the uptight doctor yet.
“So, no boundaries or rules? Or are we in a relationship?”
Baird looked deeply offended. “Of course we are in a relationship. I don't cheat and I don't lie. I am going to be honest with people if they ask if I'm dating you.”
Warmth spread
through Aislinn's chest and she toasted Baird with her grilled cheese in her hand.
“Dating it is. I like the sound of that,” Aislinn agreed and smiled across at him, her mouth full of sandwich and heart full of love.
“Now, get out,” Aislinn said and pointed towards the door. Baird's mouth dropped open.
“You've got to be kidding me.”
Shaking her head, Aislinn put her empty plate down on the table in front of the couch. “I'm sorry, but I have to keep working.”
“Through the night?” Baird asked in disbelief.
Shrugging her shoulders, Aislinn nodded. “I have to finish this grand piece. And, I have several more paintings to go. Not only do they need to be finished, but they have to dry, be framed, and get packed up before the end of the week.”
Leaning back, Baird crossed his arms behind his neck.
“Can't I watch you paint?”
“You most certainly cannot,” Aislinn replied immediately.
“Ah, artistic temperament, I see.” Baird's lips quirked at her.
Aislinn raised her nose at him. “Something like that.”
“I'll go, on one, no, two conditions.”
“What's that?”
“Come over here for a kiss,” Baird said.
Aislinn put her hands on her hips and waited. “And the other?”
“Come here and find out.”
Aislinn giggled at him and crawled across the couch, landing on his chest hard enough to make him go “ooof.” She buried her nose in his neck, inhaling the clean scent of him and all but arched her back when his arms came around her to hold her tight to him. Looking up, she raised her head enough to nip at his bottom lip.
“The second condition?”
“That wasn't much of a kiss,” Baird said.
Aislinn arched back and, supporting herself on his shoulders, she leaned in and kissed him, pouring all of her love and angst into it, until their lips were hot and they both gasped for breath.
“The second?” Aislinn asked again.
“I want to come to your show. As your date,” Baird asked.
Aislinn smiled against his mouth.
“I'd like that.”
Chapter 34
The days before her show passed in a blur of painting, making love with Baird and then unceremoniously kicking him out afterwards, and a detailed level of organization skills that she wasn't used to employing.
She couldn't have been happier.
Aislinn hummed as she cut driftwood pieces with a small power saw in her back courtyard. Today she was framing up her main showpiece. Whistling, she lined the lengths of driftwood to her measurements on the ground. Standing above them, she examined each piece with a critical eye. Turning one another direction and removing another and replacing it with a knottier piece, she finally nodded her approval. With small wood nails, she deftly nailed each of the corners together, allowing the natural ends to stick out in uneven shapes. After she affixed the driftwood to the stretched canvas frames, she would cover the nail marks with corded leather, wrapping the cord around the ends and knotting it.
Aislinn hefted the first frame over her head and marched inside, up to her apartment. No one had seen these three paintings yet. Well, aside from Baird, she thought. Even then, she'd covered the finished product after the first night that he had come to see her.
That night.
Aislinn flashed back to their raw, yet achingly beautiful, sex on the floor in front of her paintings. She had never wanted someone to stay as much as she had wanted him to go before. Her hands had been itching to complete the painting and it had taken all of her willpower to sit and eat with him.
When he'd gone, finally, Aislinn had run upstairs and dove for her paints. She'd stood in front of the middle canvas, the one depicting the cove, and had closed her eyes for a moment. She could see the painting in her mind's eye, pulsing with color and emotion. Opening her eyes, she'd narrowed in on the waters of the cove and had begun to paint.
Aislinn smiled now as she held the frame to the middle painting. It was perfect. Her brow broke out in a sweat and her heart raced as she stepped back from the three paintings. What does one do when confronted with what might possibly be their best work? She tried to calm her breath as she allowed her love for these panels to flow through her. Selling them just might break her heart.
“Ash?” Morgan called to her from downstairs.
“Coming!” Aislinn called, not wanting Morgan to come up and see her paintings. She laughed a little at herself as she descended the stairs. In a matter of days, the entire city of Dublin could see her work if they so chose.
Aislinn bounced into her store, running on energy and love.
“Fiona!”
Aislinn beamed as the elder woman stood in front of one of her paintings, shaking her head. Today Fiona was outfitted in a light woven dress that reached to her ankles and swirled in a bright fuchsia and maroon pattern. Her hair was tied back with twine, and bracelets with varying stones crowded her wrists. They jangled as she held her arms up for a hug from Aislinn. Aislinn held on a little longer than usual. Hugging Fiona was like coming home, and it calmed her jittery nerves.
She caught Morgan nervously hanging around the edge of the room and motioned for the girl to come over.
“Morgan, this is the great Fiona that I've told you about. Fiona, Morgan. I've been meaning to bring her to you.”
“Is that so?” Fiona asked, her bright eyes crinkling at the corners as she turned to measure Morgan.
Morgan smiled shyly and held out her hand to Fiona, who took it and held it between both her hands. She nodded briskly at Morgan.
“You'll come to see me, then.”
“Um, I will?” Morgan asked, uncertain of what Fiona was asking.
“Well? Don't you want to learn more about your power? Or powers, should I say?”
Aislinn cracked a smile as Morgan's mouth dropped open. People were never prepared for Fiona's honesty. But those with extra abilities? They were used to being the ones to surprise others. Rarely did someone surprise them with their own knowledge and power.
“Um, yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't know what there is to learn really…” Morgan's hands fluttered in front of her nervously.
Fiona smiled brightly at her and reached up to pat Morgan on the arm.
“That's the point of learning, isn't it? You don't know what more you can do until you try.”
Aislinn laughed at Fiona and bent to kiss her cheek.
“Inarguable wisdom as usual.”
“I heard your show is this week. I can't believe that you didn't invite me,” Fiona said, censure ringing through her tone as she swept through the store.
“I didn't know you would want to come!” Aislinn said, honestly surprised.
Fiona turned her steely gaze on Aislinn.
“And why wouldn't I come to support one of my own?”
Warmth flooded Aislinn and she was surprised to feel a little lump form in her throat. She dug her toe into the ground, like a sheepish teenager being scolded.
“I don't know. It's a fair way to travel, I guess.”
“I'm taking the train. I've already booked my hotel,” Fiona said over her shoulder and turned to look at the canvases lining the walls.
“This one is one of my favorites,” Morgan whispered and pointed to one of Aislinn's ocean of fury paintings. Fiona studied it for a while before turning to look at Aislinn.
“You've improved. Considerably. So, you're in love then?”
Aislinn swore that she could feel her cheeks heat.
“Nosy old woman, aren't you?”
Fiona broke into laughter that shook her thin shoulders before sweeping around the room to look at the rest of her work.
“Your show is going to be a smashing success,” Fiona decided, circling back to Aislinn.
“Thank you, Fiona,” Aislinn whispered, surprised to find that she had wanted Fiona's approval. Maybe even needed it.
“Okay, put me
to work then,” Fiona declared and turned to Morgan with her eyebrow raised. The girl sprang into action, showing Fiona where they were in the packaging and framing process.
“I'll wrap the finished products and document the list. You finish the frames,” Fiona decided.
“Thanks, Fiona,” Aislinn said with a smile and bent to grab a roll of the thick paper that would protect her three canvases upstairs. “I've got to finish a project upstairs. I'll be down in a bit.”
Fiona turned and Aislinn swore that the old woman was going to insist on coming upstairs to look at her paintings. Instead, she only nodded at Aislinn and began to pepper Morgan with questions. Smiling, Aislinn raced upstairs and began work on the final driftwood frames for her panels.
An hour later, she had just finished wrapping the leather cord around the corners of the frames and pulling the protective sheeting over the large panels when she heard voices downstairs. She'd closed the shop for the rest of the week as there was no way she'd have the time or patience to deal with customers. Hearing Keelin's voice, she paused with her wrapping.
“Aislinn! We're coming up!”
Aislinn swung around to check that her paintings were totally covered and then shook her head at herself. If she was going to be so secretive about her work then why was she even showing them? Maybe she should just keep them for herself. A permanent exhibition of her most inspired work, she mused.
Keelin and Cait all but bounced into the room on a rush of enthusiasm and energy.
“We can't wait for your show!” Keelin crowed, her arms full of shopping bags. Cait followed at a slightly more sedate pace, her arms also full of bags.
“What's all this?” Aislinn asked, gesturing to the bags.
“Outfits!” Keelin sang out.
The blood all but drained from her face.
She'd forgotten to pick an outfit for her show. What had she been thinking? Aislinn rushed over and grabbed Cait, kissing her cheeks enthusiastically before grabbing Keelin and pulling her into an awkward three-person hug.
“I'd forgotten to pick an outfit!” Aislinn exclaimed.
The Mystic Cove Series Boxed Set (Wild Irish Books 1-4) Page 46